We've reached $4300! Plus another $100 or so in cash donations from folks who couldn't get the link to work.
Until we can get a law passed allowing all the resisters to stay in Canada, the Harper Government is forcing us to fight this thing one case at a time. With your help, we can take them on.
My deepest thanks to everyone who has donated. If you haven't donated yet and want to, as little as $10 will make a difference.
Click here to donate to War Resister Legal Defense.
3.22.2009
petition to let george galloway speak in canada
I'm re-posting this, just in case you haven't signed yet.
Let Him Speak: Allow George Galloway To Speak In Canada
Let Him Speak: Allow George Galloway To Speak In Canada
rcmp chief insults our intelligence by saying canadians have rushed to judgment
Most Canadians do not understand the pressures of modern-day policing and should not rush to judgment, nor condemn the RCMP over the Robert Dziekanski affair, the Mounties' top man said Sunday.
However, most Canadians saw the video. We saw how "four healthy, young officers" wearing body armour and carrying guns ganged up on one stressed out, dishevelled man and killed him. The Canadian Press story continues.
"I think the expression, walk a mile in my shoes comes to mind," he said Sunday at the conclusion of a brief visit to Kandahar.
That's exactly what we did. That's why our hearts broke for Robert Dziekanski and his mother.
"They don't realize how quickly things happen and they don't realize how quickly often - unfortunately - bad things happen," he told reporters at Kandahar Airfield after meeting with RCMP officers, who are mentoring Afghan police.
Twenty-four seconds, wasn't it?
William Elliott, you insult every thinking Canadian with this nonsense. And you make your agency look even more brutal and incompetent.
canadian faith communities say let them stay
March 19, 2009
OPEN LETTER
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada
Dear Prime Minister Harper:
As representatives of Canadian churches, we write out of our deep concern for the situation of U.S. war resisters in Canada, and in particular Kimberly Rivera.
We are deeply disturbed that the Government has refused to provide a process for permanent residency for resisters and their families as requested by the June 2008 Parliamentary Resolution. We are further concerned that efforts to deport resisters have escalated over the past few months. Likewise we are very troubled that the Minister of Immigration, who is to remain impartial and arms-length from the refugee determination process, has publicly called the U.S. war resisters "bogus refugee claimants".
We write at this time to implore you to intervene in the case of Kimberly Rivera and her family who have been ordered to leave Canada on 26 March 2009 or face deportation. Ms Rivera's case bears consideration for several reasons.
1. Religious convictions about conscientious objection.
Ms. Rivera's decision to desert the U.S. military arose out of her sincere belief, developed through her experience in Iraq, that the war was wrong and that it violated her religious convictions. In explaining her objection to the Iraq War and decision to come to Canada, she has said, "On leave back in the U.S., my husband and I decided the war was wrong based on our values as Christians, and the Army was tearing my family apart. We decided that we would go to Canada, where we heard there were other families like ours." Scripture teaches us not to kill, it invokes images of swords being turned to ploughshares, and it critiques war as a way of achieving justice and security. Ms Rivera, like so many of the resisters, learned this the hard way; nevertheless, her newfound conscientious objection is authentic and sincere. As a nation which has traditionally honoured the convictions of conscientious objectors, and which itself opposed the Iraq War, Canada should provide refuge to Ms. Rivera.
2. Differential treatment for those who speak out.
It is now evident that deserters who have spoken out against the war - such as Ms. Rivera -receive differential treatment from the US military judicial system than those who have not spoken out. While most deserters receive administrative discharges, people like Robin Long, who was deported by Canada in July 2008, have received lengthy prison sentences. Robin was subsequently sentenced to 15 months in military prison and received a dishonorable discharge. His sentence is one of the harshest handed to a deserter from the Iraq War. In July 2008, James Burmeister, who voluntarily returned to the U.S. from Canada, was sentenced to nine months in military prison and given a Bad Conduct Discharge, the equivalent of a felony conviction. Evidence of his speaking out against the war in Canada was introduced as part of the argument for a harsh sentence. This differential treatment illustrates a punitive response to the resisters' freedom of speech. As a country which upholds impartiality in the judicial process and freedom of speech, Canada should provide refuge to Ms. Rivera.
3. The well-being of children.
Ms. Rivera is the mother of three young children, one an infant and Canadian citizen. Given there is a warrant for her in the US for being Absent Without Leave, she will be arrested upon return and prosecuted. She will likely be imprisoned and may be separated from her children for years. It is possible that her husband, Mario, will also be prosecuted for aiding and abetting her desertion. Whatever unfolds, without doubt her children will suffer most. As a country which seeks to protect and provide for the well-being of children, Canada should provide refuge for Ms. Rivera.
Given Ms. Rivera's sincere conscientious objection to war, the differential treatment that she will most surely receive if returned to the U.S., and the trauma such a return will mean for her children, it is imperative that Canada demonstrate compassion. We implore you to permit Ms. Rivera and her family to stay in Canada. We plead with you to implement the Parliamentary motion of June 2008 so that she, and others like her, can become permanent residents of Canada.
Our prayers are with you as you lead our country.
Sincerely,
Donald G. Peters
Executive Director
Mennonite Central Committee Canada
Merrill Stewart
Clerk
Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers)
Nora Sanders
General Secretary, General Council
The United Church of Canada
OPEN LETTER
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada
Dear Prime Minister Harper:
As representatives of Canadian churches, we write out of our deep concern for the situation of U.S. war resisters in Canada, and in particular Kimberly Rivera.
We are deeply disturbed that the Government has refused to provide a process for permanent residency for resisters and their families as requested by the June 2008 Parliamentary Resolution. We are further concerned that efforts to deport resisters have escalated over the past few months. Likewise we are very troubled that the Minister of Immigration, who is to remain impartial and arms-length from the refugee determination process, has publicly called the U.S. war resisters "bogus refugee claimants".
We write at this time to implore you to intervene in the case of Kimberly Rivera and her family who have been ordered to leave Canada on 26 March 2009 or face deportation. Ms Rivera's case bears consideration for several reasons.
1. Religious convictions about conscientious objection.
Ms. Rivera's decision to desert the U.S. military arose out of her sincere belief, developed through her experience in Iraq, that the war was wrong and that it violated her religious convictions. In explaining her objection to the Iraq War and decision to come to Canada, she has said, "On leave back in the U.S., my husband and I decided the war was wrong based on our values as Christians, and the Army was tearing my family apart. We decided that we would go to Canada, where we heard there were other families like ours." Scripture teaches us not to kill, it invokes images of swords being turned to ploughshares, and it critiques war as a way of achieving justice and security. Ms Rivera, like so many of the resisters, learned this the hard way; nevertheless, her newfound conscientious objection is authentic and sincere. As a nation which has traditionally honoured the convictions of conscientious objectors, and which itself opposed the Iraq War, Canada should provide refuge to Ms. Rivera.
2. Differential treatment for those who speak out.
It is now evident that deserters who have spoken out against the war - such as Ms. Rivera -receive differential treatment from the US military judicial system than those who have not spoken out. While most deserters receive administrative discharges, people like Robin Long, who was deported by Canada in July 2008, have received lengthy prison sentences. Robin was subsequently sentenced to 15 months in military prison and received a dishonorable discharge. His sentence is one of the harshest handed to a deserter from the Iraq War. In July 2008, James Burmeister, who voluntarily returned to the U.S. from Canada, was sentenced to nine months in military prison and given a Bad Conduct Discharge, the equivalent of a felony conviction. Evidence of his speaking out against the war in Canada was introduced as part of the argument for a harsh sentence. This differential treatment illustrates a punitive response to the resisters' freedom of speech. As a country which upholds impartiality in the judicial process and freedom of speech, Canada should provide refuge to Ms. Rivera.
3. The well-being of children.
Ms. Rivera is the mother of three young children, one an infant and Canadian citizen. Given there is a warrant for her in the US for being Absent Without Leave, she will be arrested upon return and prosecuted. She will likely be imprisoned and may be separated from her children for years. It is possible that her husband, Mario, will also be prosecuted for aiding and abetting her desertion. Whatever unfolds, without doubt her children will suffer most. As a country which seeks to protect and provide for the well-being of children, Canada should provide refuge for Ms. Rivera.
Given Ms. Rivera's sincere conscientious objection to war, the differential treatment that she will most surely receive if returned to the U.S., and the trauma such a return will mean for her children, it is imperative that Canada demonstrate compassion. We implore you to permit Ms. Rivera and her family to stay in Canada. We plead with you to implement the Parliamentary motion of June 2008 so that she, and others like her, can become permanent residents of Canada.
Our prayers are with you as you lead our country.
Sincerely,
Donald G. Peters
Executive Director
Mennonite Central Committee Canada
Merrill Stewart
Clerk
Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers)
Nora Sanders
General Secretary, General Council
The United Church of Canada
3.21.2009
penny cole: one soldier's tale of how war drove him crazy
This "as told to" was written by Penny Cole, whose husband, a Vietnam War veteran, committed suicide after he returned home. She is the author of Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War.
Read it here.
Like Jim, war resister James Burmeister also had traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder when he refused to re-deploy to Iraq. He lived in Ottawa for almost a year, then - sick, homesick, his mother ill - he turned himself in. The US military sentenced him to nine months incarceration and a bad conduct discharge.
When it got really bad, I dumped 5 tons of sand into my basement to remind me of Afghanistan," Jim told me. "I would just spend the entire day down there in my sandbox, smoking marijuana and working on peace of mind. It made me realize that you can close as many doors as you want, but ghosts walk through walls."
Jim speaks with apparent ease about his war experiences and what they cost him. His stories are punctuated with vivid detail and bemused laughter, mostly at his own expense: How could he have been so naïve ... how could he have failed to see what was going on around him?
He rubs his hands up and down his thighs frequently. It's a kind of nervous gesture that he explains is a result of a spinal injury he sustained in an IED explosion -- his legs still go numb from time to time. "But they don't get numb to the point where I fall down anymore, so I won't complain about progress," he said.
That stoicism is an apt metaphor for the rest of his life, for the experience he shares with so many servicemen and women returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. ...
On Sept. 11, 2001, when he was just a senior in high school, he watched the Twin Towers fall on TV, skipped classes for the rest of the day, and enlisted in the Army. By the summer of 2003, he was in Kandahar, with "hate, anger and vengeance" in his heart. ...
...
"When I was getting ready to deploy, they were telling us that the Taliban all wore black turbans. But it turned out there wasn't some big gang sign, like the Bloods and the Crips. Other people were wearing black turbans, too. It was messed up. We were supposed to be fighting the Taliban, but we were obliterating Afghanistan."
...
Instead of things getting better when he got home, they got worse.
"I already knew that I didn't know how to act anymore," he said. "I didn't know what I was going to do, and I didn't know how people were going to expect me to be."
He was having flashbacks, moments "where I just wasn't even here, you know? I was back there." He drank Wild Turkey all day, only sleeping when he passed out, until one night he didn't recognize his wife. He believes that he could have killed her that night.
The next day, he stopped drinking, and since then has used marijuana to self-medicate, but being stoned didn't make keeping a job any easier. He lost six in quick succession because he couldn't take orders from people who hadn't been where he had been.
That's when he "gave up on society," built his sandbox, and decided he was just going "be this crazy dude and stay in the house for the rest of my life." But being in the house didn't really solve the problem.
"I needed to get to the point where I wasn't afraid of my own thoughts," he told me.
Jim saw six or seven VA doctors after the incident with his wife. They all agreed that he had PTSD and a probable traumatic brain injury. On the basis of those diagnoses, he now gets a disability check from Social Security (but even after three years, the VA has yet to come through with benefits), but otherwise, none of them were much help.
Read it here.
Like Jim, war resister James Burmeister also had traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder when he refused to re-deploy to Iraq. He lived in Ottawa for almost a year, then - sick, homesick, his mother ill - he turned himself in. The US military sentenced him to nine months incarceration and a bad conduct discharge.
successful u.s. veteran suicide prevention program faces drastic budget cuts
From AP, via Army Times.
Always money for war, but not for its many victims. Thanks to Allan for sending this.
A nationally recognized suicide prevention program for soldiers may take a financial hit because of New Hampshire's severe budget crunch.
Gov. John Lynch has proposed cutting state funding for the Connect-Frameworks Suicide Prevention Program, which helps the New Hampshire National Guard provide mental health support to soldiers and their families.
State health officials are trying to restore some of the funding, but program director Kenneth Norton says any cut would hurt training efforts.
Since 2005 the program has trained more than 4,000 police officers, educators and mental health workers in suicide prevention for young adults. It started working with the National Guard last year.
Always money for war, but not for its many victims. Thanks to Allan for sending this.
former bush official on gitmo: "it did not matter if a detainee were innocent"
A former Bush administration official has admitted what we already know: that many or most people locked up in the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay had done nothing wrong, and that the administration knew that, and did nothing to stop or correct it.
Many detainees locked up in Guantanamo Bay were innocent men swept up by U.S. forces unable to distinguish enemies from noncombatants, a former Bush administration official said Thursday.
"There are still innocent people there," Republican Lawrence B. Wilkerson, former chief of staff to then-secretary of state Colin Powell, told the Associated Press. "Some have been there six or seven years."
Wilkerson, who first made the assertions in an internet posting on Tuesday, told the AP he learned from briefings and by communicating with military commanders that the U.S. soon realized many detainees held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were innocent but nevertheless held them in hopes they could provide information for a "mosaic" of intelligence.
"It did not matter if a detainee were innocent. Indeed, because he lived in Afghanistan and was captured on or near the battle area, he must know something of importance," Wilkerson wrote in the blog.
He said intelligence analysts hoped to gather "sufficient information about a village, a region, or a group of individuals, that dots could be connected and terrorists or their plots could be identified."
Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel, said vetting on the battlefield during the early stages of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan was incompetent with no meaningful attempt to discriminate "who we were transporting to Cuba for detention and interrogation."
Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment on Wilkerson's specific allegations but noted that the military has consistently said that dealing with foreign fighters from a wide variety of countries in a wartime setting was a complex process. The military has insisted that those held at Guantanamo were enemy combatants and posed a threat to the United States.
In his posting for The Washington Note blog, Wilkerson wrote that "U.S. leadership became aware of this lack of proper vetting very early on and, thus, of the reality that many of the detainees were innocent of any substantial wrongdoing, had little intelligence value, and should be immediately released."
Former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former vice-president Dick Cheney fought efforts to address the situation, Wilkerson said, because "to have admitted this reality would have been a black mark on their leadership."
Wilkerson told the AP in a telephone interview that many detainees "clearly had no connection to al-Qaeda and the Taliban and were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Pakistanis turned many over for $5,000 a head."
Some 800 men have been held at Guantanamo since the prison opened in January 2002, and 240 remain. Wilkerson said two dozen are considered terrorists, including confessed Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was transferred to Guantanamo from CIA custody in September 2006.
"We need to put those people in a high-security prison like the one in Colorado, forget them and throw away the key," Wilkerson said. "We can't try them because we tortured them and didn't keep an evidence trail."
But the rest of the detainees need to be released, he said.
Wilkerson, who flew combat missions as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and left the government in January 2005, said he did not speak out while in government because some of the information was classified.
He said he feels compelled to talk now because Cheney has claimed in recent media interviews that President Barack Obama is making the U.S. less safe by reversing Bush administration policies toward terror suspects, including ordering Guantanamo closed.
"I'm very concerned about the kinds of things Cheney is saying to make it seem Obama is a danger to this republic," Wilkerson said. "To have a former vice-president fearmongering like this is really, really dangerous."
Obama's administration is now evaluating what to do with the prisoners who remain at the U.S. military base in Cuba.
Among the detainees is Canadian Omar Khadr, 22, who is accused of killing a U.S. medic during a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002. Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured, has been held in Guantanamo for more than six years.
dear globe and mail, this sucks
From today's Globe and Mail:
Keep the pressure on! This is unacceptable, and we have to say so, loudly and often.
Does anyone really think that British MP George Galloway is a threat to Canada's security? It's obvious that Mr. Galloway is being refused entry into Canada because he is critical of Canadian foreign policy under the Harper government.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has described himself in recent interviews as a defender of free speech. If that is true, he should immediately rescind the ill-advised, politically motivated decision to bar Mr. Galloway from Canada.
If George W. Bush, a war maker, can come to Canada, surely a peace activist can, too.
Laura Kaminker
Mississauga, ON
Keep the pressure on! This is unacceptable, and we have to say so, loudly and often.
3.20.2009
cbc marketplace skewers the door-to-door energy sellers
Further to this post, tonight's CBC Marketplace is about my current least favourite doorbell-ringers, the energy company salespeople.
Two weeks ago, Mesley's show was about retail sales of puppies: How Not To Buy A Puppy. I was thrilled to see Marketplace covering puppy mills and backyard breeders. It's great education for a large, mainstream audience. Unfortunately, I wasn't up to watching, emotionally. Just couldn't do it. I was hoping a wmtc reader saw it and could let us know how it was.
But I am going to watch the low-down on the door-to-door energy hawkers. Pretty sure that will be less grueling than abused and neglected puppies.
Wendy Mesley investigates the tactics used by door-to-door energy sales people, and reveals the truth they don't tell you when it comes to your bills and their companies.
Two weeks ago, Mesley's show was about retail sales of puppies: How Not To Buy A Puppy. I was thrilled to see Marketplace covering puppy mills and backyard breeders. It's great education for a large, mainstream audience. Unfortunately, I wasn't up to watching, emotionally. Just couldn't do it. I was hoping a wmtc reader saw it and could let us know how it was.
But I am going to watch the low-down on the door-to-door energy hawkers. Pretty sure that will be less grueling than abused and neglected puppies.
statement from george galloway on harper govt denying him entry into canada
From George Galloway, to the people of Canada, via Toronto Coalition to Stop the War:
* * * *
March 20, 2009
The Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney gazetted in Rupert Murdoch's Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the right-wing last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business. At least for now. The upcoming elections in the country look set to follow the trend set by their neighbour to the south.
Kenney is quite a card, almost a joker in fact. A quick trawl establishes he's a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-Western prime minister of Lebanon Fuad Saniora for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so called People's Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organization with a penchant for encouraging impressionable young members to self-immolate in public places.
While on one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Lord Conrad Black a Kenney ally, now breaking stones in the hot sun. On another, and personal, note for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.
But what are my views on Afghanistan which the Canadian government (for we must assume cabinet responsibility) does not want its people to hear?
I've never been to Afghanistan, nor have I ever met a Taliban, but my first impression into the parliamentary vellum on the subject was more than two decades ago. At the time the fathers of the Taliban were "freedom fighters" paraded at US Republican and British Tory party conferences. Who knows, maybe even the Canadian right extolled these god-fearing opponents of Communism. I did not however.
On the eve of their storming of Kabul I told Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that she "had opened the gates to the barbarians" and that "a long, dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan". How long and how dark, as George Bush might have put it, I misunderestimated.
But with the same conviction I say to the Canadian and other NATO governments today that your current policy is equally a profound mistake. From time to time and with increased regularity it is a crime. Like the bombardment of wedding parties and even funerals or the presiding over a record opium crop which under our noses finds its way coursing through the veins of young people from Nova Scotia to Newcastle upon Tyne. But it is worse than a crime, as Tallyrand said, it's a blunder.
The Afghans have never succumbed to foreign occupation, heaven knows the British Empire tried, tried and failed again. Not even Alexander the Great succeeded, and whoever else he is, minister Kenney is no Alexander the Great. Young Canadian soldiers are dying in significant numbers on Afghanistan¹s plains. Their families are entitled to know how many of us believe this adventure to be similarly doomed and that genuine support for the troops British, Canadian and other means bringing them home, changing course and that an alternative policy exists, the debate around which they above all deserve to hear and judge for themselves.
For a G7 government to ban a five times elected British parliamentarian from addressing public events or keeping my appointment with some of their flagship television and radio programmes is quite a serious matter. Few would have guessed that the kinder, gentler Canada of Jonie Mitchell's lyricism would have been the villain of such a piece. Canada's conservatives have certainly paved free speech and put up a parody of liberty.
Minister Kenney's "spokesman" says in his gazette, otherwise known as the Sun, "Galloway's not coming in - end of story."
Alas for him, it's not. Canada remains a free country governed by law and my friends are even now seeking a judicial review of his decision. The Canadian people will speak soon about the whole conduct of the war and the economy by the neo-con administration he graces. And above all there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me greater in number now and including those who positively disagree with what I have to say.
More than half a century ago Paul Robeson, one of the greatest men who ever lived, was forbidden to enter Canada not by Ottawa but by Washington, which had taken away his passport. But he was still able to transfix a vast crowd of Vancouver's mill hands and miners with a 17 minute telephone concert culminating in a rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill.
Technology has moved on since then. And so from coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard - one way or another.
George Galloway MP
* * * *
March 20, 2009
The Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney gazetted in Rupert Murdoch's Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the right-wing last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business. At least for now. The upcoming elections in the country look set to follow the trend set by their neighbour to the south.
Kenney is quite a card, almost a joker in fact. A quick trawl establishes he's a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-Western prime minister of Lebanon Fuad Saniora for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so called People's Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organization with a penchant for encouraging impressionable young members to self-immolate in public places.
While on one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Lord Conrad Black a Kenney ally, now breaking stones in the hot sun. On another, and personal, note for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.
But what are my views on Afghanistan which the Canadian government (for we must assume cabinet responsibility) does not want its people to hear?
I've never been to Afghanistan, nor have I ever met a Taliban, but my first impression into the parliamentary vellum on the subject was more than two decades ago. At the time the fathers of the Taliban were "freedom fighters" paraded at US Republican and British Tory party conferences. Who knows, maybe even the Canadian right extolled these god-fearing opponents of Communism. I did not however.
On the eve of their storming of Kabul I told Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that she "had opened the gates to the barbarians" and that "a long, dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan". How long and how dark, as George Bush might have put it, I misunderestimated.
But with the same conviction I say to the Canadian and other NATO governments today that your current policy is equally a profound mistake. From time to time and with increased regularity it is a crime. Like the bombardment of wedding parties and even funerals or the presiding over a record opium crop which under our noses finds its way coursing through the veins of young people from Nova Scotia to Newcastle upon Tyne. But it is worse than a crime, as Tallyrand said, it's a blunder.
The Afghans have never succumbed to foreign occupation, heaven knows the British Empire tried, tried and failed again. Not even Alexander the Great succeeded, and whoever else he is, minister Kenney is no Alexander the Great. Young Canadian soldiers are dying in significant numbers on Afghanistan¹s plains. Their families are entitled to know how many of us believe this adventure to be similarly doomed and that genuine support for the troops British, Canadian and other means bringing them home, changing course and that an alternative policy exists, the debate around which they above all deserve to hear and judge for themselves.
For a G7 government to ban a five times elected British parliamentarian from addressing public events or keeping my appointment with some of their flagship television and radio programmes is quite a serious matter. Few would have guessed that the kinder, gentler Canada of Jonie Mitchell's lyricism would have been the villain of such a piece. Canada's conservatives have certainly paved free speech and put up a parody of liberty.
Minister Kenney's "spokesman" says in his gazette, otherwise known as the Sun, "Galloway's not coming in - end of story."
Alas for him, it's not. Canada remains a free country governed by law and my friends are even now seeking a judicial review of his decision. The Canadian people will speak soon about the whole conduct of the war and the economy by the neo-con administration he graces. And above all there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me greater in number now and including those who positively disagree with what I have to say.
More than half a century ago Paul Robeson, one of the greatest men who ever lived, was forbidden to enter Canada not by Ottawa but by Washington, which had taken away his passport. But he was still able to transfix a vast crowd of Vancouver's mill hands and miners with a 17 minute telephone concert culminating in a rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill.
Technology has moved on since then. And so from coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard - one way or another.
George Galloway MP
response from toronto coalition to stop the war to harper govt ban of galloway
From Toronto Coalition to Stop the War:
* * * *
Defend free speech.
Let George Galloway into Canada.
Stop Jason Kenney's attack on civil liberties.
Dear friends:
By now you will have heard that Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, has banned British MP George Galloway from entering Canada. Galloway is scheduled to speak in four cities during a pan-Canadian speaking tour from March 30 to April 2.
Kenney's decision to ban Galloway is an unprecedented attack on free speech and on the right to criticize our own government's foreign policy. Kenney's office has publicly stated that Galloway will be banned because of his views on the war in Afghanistan and because he represents a "threat to national security".
The ban follows Kenney's recent attacks on Canadian Arab and Muslim organizations and on Palestine solidarity campaigners for their criticism of Israel's war on Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians. In the last few days, Kenney unilaterally cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation for its immigrant settlement program. Kenney also recently attacked students organizing Israeli Apartheid Week on campuses across Canada.
Kenney has attempted to silence their voices by accusing them of anti-Semitism, despite the wide range of support and participation of Jewish organizations and individuals in these Palestine solidarity events.
The organizers of Galloway's speaking tour the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the Ottawa Peace Assembly, and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights condemn in the strongest terms Kenney's attack on free speech and our right to criticize our government's foreign policy. We call on all supporters of civil liberties to join us in challenging these attacks and in reversing Kenney's ban.
In the next few days, we will launch a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech in Canada and to reverse Kenney's ban. We call on you to join in this campaign to ensure Galloway's entry into Canada. We must organize now to ensure that all events where Galloway is scheduled to speak will proceed as planned.
Supporters should continue to buy tickets for these events and to promote them widely.
To that end, we urge you to take the following steps:
1) Contact Jason Kenney's office to condemn the ban and to demand its immediate reversal:
E-mail: minister@cic.gc.ca; kennej@parl.gc.ca
Phone: 613-992-2235 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3480 (Calgary office)
Fax: 613-992-1920 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3504 (Calgary office)
2) Join an emergency city-wide organizing meeting in Toronto to defend free speech and to reverse the ban:
Sunday, March 22
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Ryerson Student Centre
55 Gould Street
Ryerson University
This organizing meeting will take place during the closing session of the Student Assembly against War and Racism, scheduled to take place from Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22 in the same location (www.unitedagainstwar.ca). Anti-war delegates from across the country will be present to participate in developing a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech and to reverse the ban on Galloway.
3) Are you on facebook? Join the facebook group: Let Him Speak: Allow George Galloway to Speak in Canada:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62965075809
[L note: There is also this group:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=76461830691]
4) Buy tickets for the Galloway events in Toronto, Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa.
Help us promote these events. Spread the word widely. Ticket information for each city is available at www.nowar.ca and www.acp-cpa.ca.
5) Forward this e-mail across all your lists to build the biggest response possible.
If Kenney does not reverse his ban, a delegation of Canadian MPs, lawyers, peace campaigners, and civil liberties advocates will travel to the US to escort Galloway across the border on the day of his scheduled arrival to Canada.
We will join with Galloway in publicly defying Kenney's attack on free speech, civil liberties and the peace movement.
Please spread the word about Sunday's meeting. If you are outside Toronto and would like to get involved, please contact us:
Email: stopthewar@sympatico.ca
Web: www.nowar.ca or www.acp-cpa.ca
Campaign materials will be ready following Sunday's organizing meeting in Toronto for local organizers to distribute across the country.
Together, we will defend free speech and civil liberties.
And one way or another, we will bring George Galloway to Canada!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
In peace,
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Ottawa Peace Coalition
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
* * * *
Defend free speech.
Let George Galloway into Canada.
Stop Jason Kenney's attack on civil liberties.
Dear friends:
By now you will have heard that Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, has banned British MP George Galloway from entering Canada. Galloway is scheduled to speak in four cities during a pan-Canadian speaking tour from March 30 to April 2.
Kenney's decision to ban Galloway is an unprecedented attack on free speech and on the right to criticize our own government's foreign policy. Kenney's office has publicly stated that Galloway will be banned because of his views on the war in Afghanistan and because he represents a "threat to national security".
The ban follows Kenney's recent attacks on Canadian Arab and Muslim organizations and on Palestine solidarity campaigners for their criticism of Israel's war on Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians. In the last few days, Kenney unilaterally cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation for its immigrant settlement program. Kenney also recently attacked students organizing Israeli Apartheid Week on campuses across Canada.
Kenney has attempted to silence their voices by accusing them of anti-Semitism, despite the wide range of support and participation of Jewish organizations and individuals in these Palestine solidarity events.
The organizers of Galloway's speaking tour the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the Ottawa Peace Assembly, and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights condemn in the strongest terms Kenney's attack on free speech and our right to criticize our government's foreign policy. We call on all supporters of civil liberties to join us in challenging these attacks and in reversing Kenney's ban.
In the next few days, we will launch a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech in Canada and to reverse Kenney's ban. We call on you to join in this campaign to ensure Galloway's entry into Canada. We must organize now to ensure that all events where Galloway is scheduled to speak will proceed as planned.
Supporters should continue to buy tickets for these events and to promote them widely.
To that end, we urge you to take the following steps:
1) Contact Jason Kenney's office to condemn the ban and to demand its immediate reversal:
E-mail: minister@cic.gc.ca; kennej@parl.gc.ca
Phone: 613-992-2235 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3480 (Calgary office)
Fax: 613-992-1920 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3504 (Calgary office)
2) Join an emergency city-wide organizing meeting in Toronto to defend free speech and to reverse the ban:
Sunday, March 22
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Ryerson Student Centre
55 Gould Street
Ryerson University
This organizing meeting will take place during the closing session of the Student Assembly against War and Racism, scheduled to take place from Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22 in the same location (www.unitedagainstwar.ca). Anti-war delegates from across the country will be present to participate in developing a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech and to reverse the ban on Galloway.
3) Are you on facebook? Join the facebook group: Let Him Speak: Allow George Galloway to Speak in Canada:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62965075809
[L note: There is also this group:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=76461830691]
4) Buy tickets for the Galloway events in Toronto, Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa.
Help us promote these events. Spread the word widely. Ticket information for each city is available at www.nowar.ca and www.acp-cpa.ca.
5) Forward this e-mail across all your lists to build the biggest response possible.
If Kenney does not reverse his ban, a delegation of Canadian MPs, lawyers, peace campaigners, and civil liberties advocates will travel to the US to escort Galloway across the border on the day of his scheduled arrival to Canada.
We will join with Galloway in publicly defying Kenney's attack on free speech, civil liberties and the peace movement.
Please spread the word about Sunday's meeting. If you are outside Toronto and would like to get involved, please contact us:
Email: stopthewar@sympatico.ca
Web: www.nowar.ca or www.acp-cpa.ca
Campaign materials will be ready following Sunday's organizing meeting in Toronto for local organizers to distribute across the country.
Together, we will defend free speech and civil liberties.
And one way or another, we will bring George Galloway to Canada!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
In peace,
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Ottawa Peace Coalition
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
question of the day with important update
Why can an international terrorist enter Canada but an international peace activist cannot?
Bush can visit Alberta to tell us how great the world is when you're rich and powerful. But George Galloway can't come to Ontario to help us fix everything the unelected Bush/Cheney junta purposely broke.
Update! We have to remember not only to complain to each other, and on blogs, and on Facebook. Light up the phone lines! Let them know this is not their own private Canada to do with what they please. We have got to make them back down on this!
If you're not angry enough already, read the quotes from Kenney's spokesperson in this story.
Upperdate! When I called the ministry office to complain, I was told I have to put my complaint in writing "so we can take it and process it". I asked, "So there will be no record of this call?" and the assistant said, "No, there'll be a record, but we can only process complaints that are submitted in writing." Cute.
Writing they want, writing they'll get.
Letters to the editor, too, folks. Very important.
Bush can visit Alberta to tell us how great the world is when you're rich and powerful. But George Galloway can't come to Ontario to help us fix everything the unelected Bush/Cheney junta purposely broke.
Update! We have to remember not only to complain to each other, and on blogs, and on Facebook. Light up the phone lines! Let them know this is not their own private Canada to do with what they please. We have got to make them back down on this!
If you're not angry enough already, read the quotes from Kenney's spokesperson in this story.
Upperdate! When I called the ministry office to complain, I was told I have to put my complaint in writing "so we can take it and process it". I asked, "So there will be no record of this call?" and the assistant said, "No, there'll be a record, but we can only process complaints that are submitted in writing." Cute.
Writing they want, writing they'll get.
Letters to the editor, too, folks. Very important.
ndp immigration critic olivia chow responds to harper government's ban of george galloway
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, MARCH 20, 2009
HARPER GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO LIMIT FREE SPEECH
Minister of Censorship Jason Kenney denies entry to British MP Galloway
OTTAWA – Canadians interested in hearing international experts deliver anti-war messages will now have to leave the country to do so. British MP George Galloway, who was schedule to talk on resisting the war in Afghanistan, was banned by Harper’s Conservative government from entering Canada.
"Harper's government is wrong to bar MP George Galloway," said New Democrat Immigration Critic Olivia Chow. "Under the Harper government, the Minister of Immigration is becoming the 'Minister of Censorship'. This bunker mentality indicates a government afraid of hearing contradictory points of view," said Chow.
Minister Kenny’s reasons for denying George Galloway entry are an affront to freedom of speech and show the Harper government is frightened of an open debate on an unpopular war. A spokesperson for the Minister said Galloway is "inadmissible" to Canada due to his opposition to the deployment of NATO troops in Afghanistan.
"By the Minister's own twisted logic anyone who opposed the war in Afghanistan should be barred entry to Canada," continued Chow. "Would the Minister do the same to veteran British Conservative MP Sir Peter Tapsell, who called the war "unwinnable" and once said it was 'widely understood' that the Taliban were 'not international terrorists'?" (London Times, July 2, 2008)
"Canadians are able to make their own judgement on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, freedom of speech is critical in a democratic country," continued Chow.
Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has a history of banning people from Canada who do not support his views on war. In October 2007 US Peacemakers Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink and retired Colonel Ann Wright were barred from speaking at a Toronto peace conference. Similarly, distinguished educator, Professor Bill Ayers, an associate of President Obama was barred from attending a conference hosted by the University of Toronto, a day before the President's inauguration.
george galloway barred from entering canada
Unbelieveable. Unfuckingbelieveable. On the eve of George Galloway's Canadian speaking engagement, the outspoken antiwar MP from the UK has been barred from entering Canada.
MP Galloway is banned from Canada
George Galloway, a British member of Parliament, has been banned from Canada on security grounds, the country's immigration service has confirmed.
Mr Galloway, a Respect Party MP, said the ban was "idiotic" and he would look at legal action to try to overturn it.
British media reported the decision was due to his views on Afghanistan and the presence of Canadian troops there.
The anti-war MP was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 because of his outspoken comments on the Iraq war.
Mr Galloway said he was not prepared to accept what he described as an "inexplicable decision" and indicated he would challenge it with all means at his disposal.
"This has further vindicated the anti-war movement's contention that unjust wars abroad will end up consuming the very liberties that make us who we are," he said.
"All right-thinking Canadians, whether they agree with me or not, will oppose this outrageous decision."
'Mock trial'
A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada confirmed the MP would not be allowed into the country on national security grounds.
He said the decision had been taken by border security officials "based on a number of factors" in accordance with the country's immigration act.
Mr Galloway had been due to speak at a public forum, Resisting War from Gaza to Kandahar, in Toronto on 30 March.
In 2006 he was detained "on grounds of national security" at Cairo airport after heading to Egypt to attend a "mock trial" of then PM Tony Blair and then US President George Bush.
Mr Galloway became the figurehead for the anti-war Respect party after being expelled from Labour.
His expulsion followed comments on the Iraq war which Labour chairman Ian McCartney said "incited foreign forces to rise up against British troops".
The party acted following a number of TV interviews, including one in which Mr Galloway accused Tony Blair and President Bush of acting "like wolves" in invading Iraq.
Mr Galloway said it had been a "politically motivated kangaroo court".
aimee mullins, superhero
Mark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing posted a great video of Aimee Mullins, a former Paralympic record-setter and an activist for women and people with disabilities. There's a very interesting - and, for me, somewhat irritating - discussion about the video, so rather than post the video myself, I'll direct you there. I came to the discussion late, which is just as well, given my feelings about some of the comments.
Aimee Mullins: How my legs give me super-powers
Many thanks to James for sending me this. I interviewed Mullins when she was a up-and-coming teenage amputee track star, so I'm always interested in what she's up to.
Aimee Mullins: How my legs give me super-powers
Many thanks to James for sending me this. I interviewed Mullins when she was a up-and-coming teenage amputee track star, so I'm always interested in what she's up to.
let them stay week 2, day 5: call or visit your mp
On the final day of Let Them Stay Week 2, we ask you to take one additional - and very important - action: please contact your MP.
Tell him or her that you want US war resisters to be allowed to stay in Canada, and why you feel this way. The motion passed in June 2008 calling on the government to stop the deportations and allow the war resisters to apply for permanent residence status was reaffirmed by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration in February of this year. We expect it to go to the full House of Commons soon. We expect additional action in the House of Commons soon, too.
No matter what party your MP belongs to, it's vital that he or she know that this issue matters to you.
I think most of you know your MP and how to contact her or him, but just in case, you can go here, plug in your postal code, and call up the name and contact info. An email is good, a phone call is good, a visit is great.
Thank you for standing up for peace and democracy.
Tell him or her that you want US war resisters to be allowed to stay in Canada, and why you feel this way. The motion passed in June 2008 calling on the government to stop the deportations and allow the war resisters to apply for permanent residence status was reaffirmed by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration in February of this year. We expect it to go to the full House of Commons soon. We expect additional action in the House of Commons soon, too.
No matter what party your MP belongs to, it's vital that he or she know that this issue matters to you.
I think most of you know your MP and how to contact her or him, but just in case, you can go here, plug in your postal code, and call up the name and contact info. An email is good, a phone call is good, a visit is great.
Thank you for standing up for peace and democracy.
poll shows strong canadian support for getting out of afghanistan
Funny how I didn't see this on the front page of today's Globe and Mail. If I didn't get emails from Angus Reid, I might not have seen it at all. [Emphasis mine.]
National Public Opinion Poll
MISSION IN AFGHANISTAN
Almost Half of Canadians Would End Afghanistan Mission Before 2011
Atlantic Canadians, Quebecers and Ontarians more likely to both disagree with the extension of the mission, and advocate for an early withdrawal.
Canadian adults remain concerned about the mission in Afghanistan, with very few respondents advocating for an extension of Canada's military commitment and almost half calling for a withdrawal of troops before the scheduled 2011 deadline, a new Toronto Star / Angus Reid poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample, 48 per cent of respondents want the bulk of the troops currently deployed in Afghanistan to be withdrawn before 2011, 35 per cent would continue under the scheduled plan that calls for the end of the mission in 2011, and only seven per cent believe Canadian soldiers should remain in Afghanistan after 2011.
Since September 2008, more than half of Canadians (52% in the February 2009 survey) have disagreed with the extension of Canada's mission in Afghanistan until 2011. In the latest poll, the highest level of rejection is reported in Atlantic Canada (66%), Quebec (59%), and Ontario (50%).
Almost half of Canadians (48%) believe the Afghan government will be unable to take care of its own security needs without assistance from international troops in 2011 — a proportion that remains unchanged since December.
3.19.2009
must-see video: we dog jason kenney
Diary of Jason Kenney, Minister for Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. March 18, 2009.
Early in the day, Kenney speaks at one of his many ethnic ass-kissing events. The event proceeds quietly as planned. The floor is opened for questions from the audience. Ken M stands up. "Mr Kenney," says Ken, "I'd like to know why you are deporting US war resister Kimberly Rivera and her family, even though Parliament voted to let them stay?"
Ken is escorted out of the room, all the while saying loudly, "I only want to ask Minister Kenney why he is deporting Kim Rivera."
After his next event - sponsored by a Young Conservative group and Hillel, a conservative Zionist organization - this happens. If you haven't seen it, please watch.
Then Mr Kenney attends another event in Toronto. When it ends, this happens:
Wait, the day's not over! Mr Kenney goes to London, Ontario, for an event at Huron University College. And this happens.
I'll have video of this last event later tonight.
Gee, do you think Mr Kenney knows about this issue now?
Early in the day, Kenney speaks at one of his many ethnic ass-kissing events. The event proceeds quietly as planned. The floor is opened for questions from the audience. Ken M stands up. "Mr Kenney," says Ken, "I'd like to know why you are deporting US war resister Kimberly Rivera and her family, even though Parliament voted to let them stay?"
Ken is escorted out of the room, all the while saying loudly, "I only want to ask Minister Kenney why he is deporting Kim Rivera."
After his next event - sponsored by a Young Conservative group and Hillel, a conservative Zionist organization - this happens. If you haven't seen it, please watch.
Then Mr Kenney attends another event in Toronto. When it ends, this happens:
Wait, the day's not over! Mr Kenney goes to London, Ontario, for an event at Huron University College. And this happens.
War protesters dog Kenney
Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was met during a London visit today by dozens of angry supporters of Iraq war resisters.
Signs that read "stop the deporatations" and "U.S. war resisters welcome here" awaited Kenney outside Huron University College, where he gave a speech, 'Good citizenship and the duty to integrate.'
Inside, Kenney told a crowded hall that every war resister who faces deportation is subject to the federal courts.
"I am not going to allow political judgments to trump the fair and consistent application of the rule of laws as it relates to anyone," Kenney told an audience of about 250.
Earlier in his speech, he noted Canada accepts 250,000 permanent residents a year.
"We cannot and should not be cavalier of the challenges of that growing diversity," he said.
Kenney argued there's a need to streamline the immigration program to better meet Canada's economic needs, adding that only 20% of newcomers with who are granted permanent residency have opted to use free language training programs offered by the federal government.
Josh Randall, a U.S. war resister who is now a permanent resident in Canada and lives in London, said he disagreed with Kenney's comments, adding the Harper government ought to "listen to the will of Parliament," after it had passed a motion that would allow war resisters to stay.
Kenney has been criticized over the appointment of Doug Cryer last month to Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board, which hears applications for refugee status.
Cryer has publicly defended the right of churches to denounce homosexuality and now sits on the tribunal that decides whether gays are allowed refugee status in Canada.
Kenney called the criticism "completely ridiculous."
"To suggest that Canadians who fully support traditional marriage are somehow unable to recognize real persecution where it exists is ridiculous, completely ridiculous," he said.
I'll have video of this last event later tonight.
Gee, do you think Mr Kenney knows about this issue now?
war resister support campaign response to comments by jason kenney
If you've seen this video, where War Resister Support Campaign organizer Michelle Robidoux and war resister Kim Rivera (along with Kim's baby daughter Katie) speak to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, you might have wondered about some of Mr Kenney's statements. You have every reason to wonder.
Here are some brief responses from Michelle on behalf of the Campaign. Many thanks to Gerry Condon for taking the time to flesh these out and send them around.
* * * *
Kenney: "I respect the political views of the people involved [with the protest] but I think it would be a big mistake to override our own courts to say that deserters of a voluntary military service in a democratic country can be refugees."
- This is not true. The Refugee Handbook does not discriminate against military personnel seeking refugee status based on whether or not they volunteered for the military or whether their military is part of a democratic country. What he says is not relevant and is erroneous when referring to the refugee criteria.
Kenney: "If you are concerned about American citizens who come to Canada illegally in violation of our laws ... If you are concerned of what fate they face south of the border, I would strongly recommend you take that up with [U.S. President Barack Obama’s] administration."
- Obama does not oversee the meting out of military justice. He could create an amnesty – but that will not happen until troops are out. And, these folks have not violated any Canadian law. Again, not relevant and erroneous.
Kenney: "Now if there are former members of the American military that want to come here as applicants to be candidates for a skilled for work category or apply for a visitor's visa, I'm happy to make sure my department receives and gives fair consideration to [their] application."
- Virtually none would qualify for skilled worker category and there are terms for visitor's visas – so again, a way to redirect the conversation to options that are not options.
Kenney says he does not have the power to allow war deserters to stay illegally in Canada.
- the Minister can grant status to pretty much anyone on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
"When [American war deserters] come up [to Canada] with the intention of staying in Canada permanently without a visa, without proper visa status, they are in violation of our law. . . . My obligation is to enforce the law."
- He assumes that is their intention which it is not. They want status and are using all legal avenues to seek it – like many refugee claimants. Unless they violate the final deportation order, they are doing nothing illegal.
Michelle: Ultimately, these quotes from Kenney all serve to deflect from the issue that Parliament does indeed have a say in these matters, and that it did vote in favour of ceasing the deportations. The fact that Kenney refuses to abide by the democratic will of Parliament is an issue he is trying to avoid. That is also why his ministry removed the section of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website that spoke about the Vietnam resisters who came to Canada: it is evidence of the fact that Canada made a political decision in that era to welcome both war resisters and draft resisters.
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